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Repost – Elderberry….what is not to love?
Sambucus is the genus of this amazing plant. From our love of blueberries and now a growing love for acai, we know that polyphenols are essential to good health. This lovely berry also has them and oh so much more. It has scandal, medicine, and color! I can’t even recall where I read this little tidbit but it’s something posted on drflower’s facebook page a few weeks ago. It still resonates. “Did you know that the exact chemical components of all essential oils remain unknown? There is still a micro-frontier! Amazing!” psst… Polyphenol research is a part of this mystery. We must back up and look at the forest as…
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Repost – Part II: Elderberry….what is not to love?
Be sure to read Part 1 here. 😉 In my research I find that I’m not alone in my elderberry flower/fruit obsession. It seems that elderberries.com has created a ning network of folks that are as passionate about this botanical as I am! Yayy! There are several recipes on this site that could be of interest. I believe it is sponsored by a spice company. Many of the recipes that I’ve tried have come from The Essential Herbal magazine. The folks there are very helpful and accessible for any questions you might have. If you have questions about what an elderberry bush looks like, the elderberries.com forum has many good…
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Store is closed, blog still open :-D
Hey there! Those of you checking to see about Dr. Flower’s Essentials, Inc. We are closed as a store. We are still blogging though! Things may transition as we go. The old dr. flower blog will be available to look at. Re-posted articles could appear here from time to time along with new content. Pardon the dust and come take a look. ~Regina
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Do You Find Poetry Or Does It Find You?
Are you a pack rat? I might have a few of those tendencies. I try hard to keep my spaces clear of cluttered stuff but let’s face it, it’s an ongoing battle. It ebbs and flows like many other things in life. I’m pretty sure that stress levels are a direct proportion. I come by this character trait honest. My mother is the queen of pack ratness. (Sorry mom but hang on I’m going somewhere with this.) If my Mom wasn’t a pack rat, there are some important milestone in my life cards, notes, pictures, school work that would have been lost to file 13. Within a plastic box, I was able…
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Herbs to plant = Herbie heaven!
There is something so gratifying about setting plants in fertile soil. They just look healthy and green in the contrast to the rich black to red soil that they sit in. Yes, red clay is a way of life in Georgia. As long as it has a balance of other nutrients, it’s becomes a necessary if not welcomed component of good garden soil. This week, it is herb planting time at Rock Star Farms. The farm has grown by leaps and bounds over this past year. Last year, the medicine wheel was sporting many vegetables along side herbs. This year, vegetable garden beds surround the medicine wheel. The wheel can…
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Healing Weed Food – Vernal Equinox
This past weekend was a scheduled girls event at Rock Star Farms for a bunch of ladies to get together and work on the garden that is meant for herbs. It’s been amazing seeing the changes transform at this farm! Last year, this circle was the only section planted. This year, most of the heavy food planting is done in beds around this circle that is destined to be a medicine wheel. Our objective was to weed and get all those volunteer plants up and out! Another neat transformation that occurred during this process was a shift in how this group saw weeds. There were two kinds in particular that…
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The Traditions of Spring Cleaning
What triggers your spring cleaning? Is it the persistent tweet of the birds outside your window? The warmer air that begins to signal that spring is coming? or is it the extra length of light each day that has been creeping in since the Winter solstice in December? Whatever your trigger is, to be sure, you are not the first human to have that feeling or instinct that compels us all to stop and at least think about doing some cleaning or organizing. It still remains to be seen as to whether we actually do it! It depends on how bold your procrastination tendencies are allowed to be. It also…
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Genetically Modified Organisms – Are we being nice to Mother Nature?
I’m sure that you’ve heard this Acronym before, GMO. What does it really mean? The first time I heard about it, I had to look it up too. Read this article and we’ll give you a little bit about what it is and why opinions are so high about it. GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organisms. What are they? To get to the heart of it, we have to throw out a few more acronyms. One you’ve probably heard before that has transformed the criminal justice system. DNA evidence ring a bell? DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. If it’s a living thing, it has this and another one…
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Greens for the "green" month
I have all these greens this month that I’ve been getting from Rock Star Farms CSA. What do I do with them all? Discussions are beginning to take shape among the CSA members. Here are a few things that I do with them. I’m considering making this dish tonight with my Collards from Rock Star Farms Winter CSA: Collards and Potatoes . We’ll see if Canada is as good at Collards as they are hockey! :-O Save your own environment by not cooking your collards till they are beyond mush! This tidbit of advice goes for any green veggie you get your hands on. All those wonderful vitamins are long gone…
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1 State down, 49 more to go? sounds expensive…
News update: Colorado voted NO to the safe cosmetics bill. I’ll be the first to tell you, we have some serious problems with our environment and product culture that is helping cause the increase of Cancer and other diseases. We need to get to the bottom of the ROOT Cause. If you read the previous post on the Safe Cosmetics bill from CO, you’ll know that it’s not the intent of the bill that that many large and small businesses have a problem with. It’s the details and ingredient levels that the Colorado bill by passed entirely. In a Global age of information and commerce, each US State is going to mandate…
